Has Anyone Tried Going Vegetarian for 30 Days?

I don't think I could, but I'm curious if anyone has given Vegetarianism the same energy, focus and intention that they've given Paleo?

I live in India and it seems the vegetarians are the most unhealthy people I know (just what I've noticed personally, honestly.) Either underweight or overweight, depending on their background/lifestyle/job, the ones I know frequently have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and often deficient in one or more Vitamins such as B12. And all at younger ages than I thought was even possible. However, being vegetarian from what I've seen certainly doesn't mean you're overloading on vegetables and real food, but rather refined, processed foods, most of which are wheat based and/or cooked in terrible oils.

so back to the main question - could you be as devoted and strict for 30 days? What's 30 days anyway, if you don't do any wheat/legumes? Would it be THAT hard? I'm really stretching to be a devil's advocate here, since I doubt I could do 2 days - what the heck would I eat. What would you eat if you could? I know there are a few Paleo-Veg's on here so I'd love your input as well.

Good point. I always think that too. Most of the vegetarians I know are FAR from the picture of health, and certainly not who I would like to emulate. But I think they're just not doing it right (too much wheat, bad oils, deep fried stuff etc).

A friend of the family was a strict vegetarian for years and then got pregnant with her 3rd child and began craving and and only eating Taco Bell meals for 6 months! My sister was always very indulgent and would become a garbage disposal, gaining 60-80 lbs per pregnancy. I wonder if some of it is societal, like some kind of entitlement to eat whatever you want depending on personality. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am not proved wrong and end up eating cake all day! I figure I am through the early stages (due mid-April) so I think it will be easier here on out.

That's the question I wish I had more answers to, even if I don't personally believe it's possible. So I could provide more support, answers and assistance to the dozens of young vegetarians who I have a slight influence over.

I find it fascinating the way the body will adjust it's cravings to get what it needs to create a new life. My vegetarian friend is pregnant now and has cravings for the worst foods - deep fried samosas, ramen noodles called "Maggie" here, and Kurkure, some gross cheese puffs that are also popular. Yet heaven forbid she eat a damn egg. :( Doc has her on pills for GERD and she's only 4 months in (so 8 weeks, or don't they calculate it different...not sure but she's due in Feb. It drives me straight bonkers, so much that I just have to distance myself. You are lucky you had such healthy cravings

I understand Paleo as a diet about what to eat but when it comes to Vegetarianism it gets confusing because it's a diet defined by what NOT to eat. A more interesting question I think is whether one can create a diet that excludes meat and still thrive; it might be possible but I bet it's a great deal harder to achieve and sustain in the long term.

Oh and the smell of melted butter got me sometimes, so if I was baking apples or baking a sweet potato and coating them with some butter, I needed to douse the cinnamon on them quickly to help temper the smell, along with the garlic and the broccoli raab. But it felt good once it was in my stomach, I think butter saved the day. Plus I just needed that starch.

It was from about week 5 to week 10 - I did have one grassfed burger, but it was from a restaurant that my kid brother works at, and this was around week 9 when I could imagine eating it without feeling sick. I still have my husband grill most things - even roasts! I think I will try some ground beef indoors tomorrow, I think it should be fine now. The funny thing is that my cravings for greens went through the roof early on, I was eating like 2 lbs of sauteed broccoli raab each day for 2 weeks, with tons of butter and garlic. It felt like it was my "meat" in a way.

Yeah I did a bit of that, and saw a few innocent, misguided or rebellious veggie-converters. I guess I'm coming at it more from a "knowing what you know now" pt of view. And obviously I'm expecting the majority of the answers to be a resounding no. I'm slightly more interested in the others.

B12 is rampantly deficient around here. The horrible news is the supplement, which I was given yesterday by a doc (for no reason, just a default thing I guess) when I went for a throat infection has the following ingredients: Soya oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, sorbitol and various other "natural" ingredients. Made me want to cry. I tossed it.

I have not read that book but plan to purchase it today if I can find it. Everything is closed since it is Gandhi's birthday. :) I agree about the spices. Nature's pharmacy. Tumeric, cumin, coriander...so many more. I can't get enough.

Totally agree and I have all our oils switched to ghee, evoo and coconut oil, with only ghee for cooking. Wheat is a HUGE part of the diet, especially where I am, but I found an Indian nutritionist who talks about the possible harmful effects of wheat, so I've been cautiously and slowly encouraging a switch to other, gluten-free grains like millet, but nobody likes their chapatis with anything other than wheat...so far :( –

Totally agree and I have all our oils switched to ghee, evoo and coconut oil, with only ghee for cooking. Wheat is a HUGE part of the diet, especially where I am, but I found an Indian nutritionist who talks about the possible harmful effects of ghee, so I've been cautiously and slowly encouraging a switch to other, gluten-free grains like millet, but nobody likes their chapatis with anything other than wheat...so far :(

Do a search on this site and you will find that many of us (perhaps even the majority) have had long histories with veganism and vegetarianism. I know personally that you couldn't pay me to go back as I am far healthier now than I ever was during those years of my life.

13
Answers

I did for a few months, and I can't remember exactly how many months but it was enough of a trial period. It was all right, I didn't feel like I was dying or particularly vital, just all right. I was supplementing with B12, the methylcobalamin form, zinc, and eating a nutritious "whole food" diet with a moderate amount of fat, maybe 30% of calories. I was not iron-deficient or low on protein or calories. I didn't exactly have the placebo effect that some people invariably feel after very short periods of time, ecstatic from their new-found dietary choice and all that it's supposed to entail. I also didn't radically alter my dietary quality in ways unrelated to meat, it was already high.

When I found out about pastured meat and the alternative to the mainstream meat industry I decided to give it a try, breaking the spell with a bison burger from the local health food store. I enjoyed the meal, grass-fed bison can either be delicious or offensively mediocre, this was the former. I subsequently ceased my thoughts of food and became engaged in a book for a few hours. Then came a jolt from within, a surge of power beneath my skin, pervading my body, mind, and spirit, I was ablaze with the fire of ten thousand suns, ascending like the mighty phoenix to a a higher tier of existence. The energy of life flowed through my body, not idly and timidly, but as a herd of stampeding bison, strong and proud, noble and fierce, ready to circumvent any obstacle head-on. The bison's strength added to my own, augmenting my power...

I WAS THE HIGHLANDER!!! And I was whole again.

I later came to believe that the unique nutrition found in red meat was the reason for this effect. Red meat is rich in carnitine, carnosine/beta alanine, taurine, creatine, and other nutrients that have a demonstrable effect on mood and vitality. Plant foods are lacking or devoid of these nutrients. Some people swear they don't feel any different after taking them while on a vegetarian diet, like Aravind from this site, and this leads me to suspect that different populations have adapted to cope with the lack of these exogenous nutrients better than others. It's unproven, but he is Indian and so his people may have been selected over the generations to be better synthesizers of the nutrients that they would lack from their meatless diet. If you need a certain amount of a nutrient for optimal vitality and therefore surviving and raising viable offspring the best you can, and you get lots of it from your diet, that takes away the selection pressure to keep genes that make you a robust synthesizer of these nutrients.

Something has to explain my experience and this makes the most sense to me. Vegetarians who feel worse when they eat meat probably have some health problems like low HCL or an allergy, and so meat might actually make them worse. And there are some people who are so adverse to the idea of eating meat that they have a psychosomatic episode from it. I didn't experience the placebo effect, I didn't even think about food for the hours following the meal.

That's really the best way to make changes to the diet, impartially and without making any changes other than the one that you're assessing. Good luck.

B12 is rampantly deficient around here. The horrible news is the supplement, which I was given yesterday by a doc (for no reason, just a default thing I guess) when I went for a throat infection has the following ingredients: Soya oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, sorbitol and various other "natural" ingredients. Made me want to cry. I tossed it.

My understanding is that all the health problems among vegetarians in India have mostly developed in the last couple of decades. I don't think wheat and industrial oils were a major part of the vegetarian diet there in the past. Rice and ghee are probably a lot healthier.

Totally agree and I have all our oils switched to ghee, evoo and coconut oil, with only ghee for cooking. Wheat is a HUGE part of the diet, especially where I am, but I found an Indian nutritionist who talks about the possible harmful effects of wheat, so I've been cautiously and slowly encouraging a switch to other, gluten-free grains like millet, but nobody likes their chapatis with anything other than wheat...so far :( –

Totally agree and I have all our oils switched to ghee, evoo and coconut oil, with only ghee for cooking. Wheat is a HUGE part of the diet, especially where I am, but I found an Indian nutritionist who talks about the possible harmful effects of ghee, so I've been cautiously and slowly encouraging a switch to other, gluten-free grains like millet, but nobody likes their chapatis with anything other than wheat...so far :(

This past August I ate pretty much only vegetarian, but paleo vegetarian, due to some food aversions caused by pregnancy. I didn't even want eggs. I had to get all of my animal fat in from butter, ghee and raw cheese and sour cream. I actually felt fine, did not need grains (except some rice) or anything to supplements hunger, as I had almost no appetite, lots of squash, broccoli raab, potatoes, salads, avocado, fruit, etc., and felt really good, pretty much the same as normal. I was happy to be able to get meat back in, but I am definitely still eating way more vegetables and fruit than I was before, and probably only one serving of meat per day, but bone broth is back in. I think that it was such a short term that it wouldn't affect me, but I think vegetarian is way different than vegan, especially if eggs are included in the diet.

It was from about week 5 to week 10 - I did have one grassfed burger, but it was from a restaurant that my kid brother works at, and this was around week 9 when I could imagine eating it without feeling sick. I still have my husband grill most things - even roasts! I think I will try some ground beef indoors tomorrow, I think it should be fine now. The funny thing is that my cravings for greens went through the roof early on, I was eating like 2 lbs of sauteed broccoli raab each day for 2 weeks, with tons of butter and garlic. It felt like it was my "meat" in a way.

Oh and the smell of melted butter got me sometimes, so if I was baking apples or baking a sweet potato and coating them with some butter, I needed to douse the cinnamon on them quickly to help temper the smell, along with the garlic and the broccoli raab. But it felt good once it was in my stomach, I think butter saved the day. Plus I just needed that starch.

A friend of the family was a strict vegetarian for years and then got pregnant with her 3rd child and began craving and and only eating Taco Bell meals for 6 months! My sister was always very indulgent and would become a garbage disposal, gaining 60-80 lbs per pregnancy. I wonder if some of it is societal, like some kind of entitlement to eat whatever you want depending on personality. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am not proved wrong and end up eating cake all day! I figure I am through the early stages (due mid-April) so I think it will be easier here on out.

I find it fascinating the way the body will adjust it's cravings to get what it needs to create a new life. My vegetarian friend is pregnant now and has cravings for the worst foods - deep fried samosas, ramen noodles called "Maggie" here, and Kurkure, some gross cheese puffs that are also popular. Yet heaven forbid she eat a damn egg. :( Doc has her on pills for GERD and she's only 4 months in (so 8 weeks, or don't they calculate it different...not sure but she's due in Feb. It drives me straight bonkers, so much that I just have to distance myself. You are lucky you had such healthy cravings

I spent 16 years as a vegetarian. I didn't eat fast food and ate lots of vegetables. I felt pretty good for years. Only in the last 6 years did my digestion start falling apart, I was tired, had bouts of depression...(even some very Bad Thoughts), and I couldn't build muscle despite working out a lot. I was dedicated to 'healthful' whole-food whole grain vegetarianism. Only when my mother in law suggested paleo, did I start to think that maybe I'd been wrong for years.
I hear newly minted vegetarians and vegans talk about how light and amazing they feel....yeah..I did too....for a while. I'm still cleaning up the damage, over a year later. I'll never try again. No thanks.

At one point in college, I went vegetarian for a month just to see if I could do it. I ate Indian food 2-3 times per day. I found that I felt better than I did on my baseline diet of junk food, but it wasn't completely a benefit, because I started having a lot more skin problems, which I attributed to the vegetable oil. The benefits were mediocre compared to when I went on a cyclical ketogenic diet, or later, paleo. However, it was a huge improvement over rampant disregard for what I stuck in my mouth.

I suspect that many vegetarians who experience health benefits run into the same thing: deciding to care about what you're eating is going to produce a lot of health benefits, at least in the short run, even if you're getting the theory wrong. A lot of vegetarian convenience foods and restaurant dishes are somewhat healthier than the omnivore alternatives, so the halo effect isn't surprising.

I have no problem with encouraging people who eat junk to try a vegetarian diet if they feel so inclined. Just because it's a poor ending point doesn't mean it's a bad first step.

In the process I gained 50 lbs, became depressed, anxious, ruined my skin, painful joints, and then the worst happened: I developed significant food allergies to soy, wheat, nuts, eggs, and later found out I'm allergic to seafood!

After I got off being vegetarian I lost about 10 lbs but the rest of the damage stayed. It isn't until this May where I went on a ketogenic version of paleo have I started to recover, losing another 20 lbs.

I regret being a vegetarian. I believe it ruined my health and took away what should have been my best years. I'm looking down the barrel of 40 and at least I have my life back.

Got the idea from one of my professors. I did it for about 90 days. I was hard core. No cheese, no meat, no eggs even. Lots of beans, soy, and brown rice and a TON of vegetables. Making portabella burgers (mushroom as meat) and all. I must say I didn't exactly feel "bad", but at the time I was lifting weights and slowly but surely I was getting weaker. Spoke to another professor who just blatantly asked "so do you think professor X looks healthy?". Well no. He was emaciated and frail looking actually. I broke my vegan stint with a 24oz steak and never looked back.

Good point. I always think that too. Most of the vegetarians I know are FAR from the picture of health, and certainly not who I would like to emulate. But I think they're just not doing it right (too much wheat, bad oils, deep fried stuff etc).

I have been full-bore paleo for over two years. In that time I lost almost 100lbs, and completely reversed metabolic syndrome (gout, high bp, high chol, high trigs, fatty liver disease). However, my fasting blood glucose has been in the low 100's for the past year and I could never lose that 'last 10 lbs'.

I tried a cool challenge: Eat only potatoes for 14 days. No fats, meats, just potatoes.

After 14 days, I had lost 10lbs and have kept the 10lbs off for weeks now--so it wasn't water weight like you get with fasting.

My FBG is now in the low 90's. I have modified my diet slightly to now include days of starch-only. Apparently the body processes starch differently when it is consumed in the absence of dietary fat and protein.

Indian-style vegetarianism based on starch and vegetable oil is an underlying theme of Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas. Without any consideration of paleo, his portrayal of the physiological and social consequences is devastating - one of many forces Biswas has to struggle against as he "paddles his own canoe".

I certainly incorporate a lot of Indian spices into my meals. Indians are the masters of hiding nasty flavors. But I would never consider going back to the high fat/carb strategy and dropping the meat. I don't want to repeat being obese and diabetic.

I have not read that book but plan to purchase it today if I can find it. Everything is closed since it is Gandhi's birthday. :) I agree about the spices. Nature's pharmacy. Tumeric, cumin, coriander...so many more. I can't get enough.

i was a vegan for five years and 3 years of that as a raw foodist/fruitarian. giving up meat really wasn't hard for me since it made me feel so great. it was when i became a fruitarian that things stared going downhill with my ulcerative colitis.

now that i am paleo, i don't think i'd go back to veganism since i do feel a little better this way. my UC is still really bad, but i am hoping it will heal eventually. i think all the fiber from fruitarianism was just way too much for my poor colon.